To the editor:

At every previous public meeting regarding proposed ferry reservations, South Whidbey residents have been very vocal in telling WSDOT Ferries Division Assistant Secretary David Moseley that reservations are a bad idea. They’ve given him numerous reasons why this kind of proposal would ensure difficulties for a large number of Whidbey residents who commute daily — to say nothing of those whose need for the ferry is less predictable.

Mr. Moseley tells us to keep an open mind and take a look at WSF’s pre-planning reservations study when it becomes available for public scrutiny in mid-December. The problem is that we trusted the state Legislature and WSDOT to plan and prepare for the ferries, and that trust has been damaged. To keep an open mind means that we trust WSDOT motives and stewardship.

Unfortunately, this trust has been severely eroded by their lack of planning and preparation in funding and maintaining the ferry system. The trust our state legislators and ferry officials seek has, in my view, not been earned.

We already know that fares have increased and that further increases are likely. We know (although officials dance around the issue) that service cutbacks are planned on the Clinton-Mukilteo route, among others.

They claim to respect their customers’ needs, and so they ought to start listening to what the majority of us have been saying we need: NO RESERVATIONS on the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry route!

Paulette Becker

Langley